Cannibal Capitalism and Higher Education: Diagnosis and Prognosis

Abstract

Fraser’s recent book, Cannibal Capitalism, whilst polemical in style and urgent in its call for action, is nevertheless built on an analysis of capitalism that sees it not simply as “…an economic system based on private property and market exchange, wage labor and production for profit” (Fraser 2022: xiv) but as a societal order. By this Fraser means that for capitalism to function, it is dependent upon, and predatory on, a set of extra-economic preconditions involving nature, social reproduction, and public powers. This line of analysis follows that of Rosa Luxemburg (1951): the accumulation of capital and its expanding surplus value is dependent on its expansion into, and colonisation and exploitation of, societies, sectors and subjects, that were decommodified. Yet education itself is strangely under-theorised in this work and in the work of others who are analysing the development of contemporary capitalism (cf. Harvey 2003; Piketty 2020, Fraser 2022). In many cases, education remains a decommodified sector, and whilst this might be the case in many parts of the world, in countries like England, Australia and New Zealand, higher education has been drawn directly into the circuit of capital as (i) a generator of GDP, (ii) producer of human capital with transformed capacities undertake labouring for the economy, (iii) producer of intellectual property, and (iv) the site for the production of capitalist entrepreneurs. How might we develop the promising lines of analysis offered by Fraser and others in ways in which we can enrich their diagnosis, and thus offer a viable prognosis? This panel of three papers bring the insights of Nancy Fraser's new book, ‘Cannibal Capitalism’ (2022) to bear on developments in higher education. The papers engage in different ways in diagnosing contemporary higher education dynamics drawing on Fraser's concepts that include the exploitative nature of capitalism, public power, and the erosion of democracy. Yet they all bring other resources to the table to augment current diagnoses, wand therefore prognosis for what is to be done.

Title	Details
Pathways to Financialization of Higher Education	View Paper Details
Students as a Byproduct: How Meritocracy and Data became the Teeth of the Cannibal	View Paper Details
Capitalism’s Mindgrab: The New Imperialism, Dispossession and English HE	View Paper Details